Tax assessment has always been a hotly debated issue in economic. We all know that it costs a lot to run a household. In the same sense, it costs a lot of money for a government to run a country. This is why taxation is necessary. Through taxation, a government can compensate their spending and fund the social services that benefit most of the society. High tax can compensate the government spending while may curb investment. A question always being raised is that how to impose an appropriate and efficient tax without harming our economy and what subjects are best to be taxed. We can find the answer from the analyses on different approaches to taxation by Adam Smith and David Ricardo throwback a century ago. Their analyses still have a far-reaching impact on today’s taxation policy. Adam Smith discusses different strategies for levying a tax in his book “Wealth of Nations”. Smith calls attention to that the state can raise money through five different channels: taxes on the rent of land, taxes upon the rent of the house, taxes upon profit, taxes upon the wages of labour and taxes upon consumable commodities. One way for Smith to evaluate those five different taxation channels is that whether they satisfy the four basic maxims for taxation he made. For a tax to be considered good and efficient, it needs to meet the following four basic principles raised by Smith:
“I. The subjects of every state outhg to contribute towards the support of the government, as
In this section of the paper flat tax will be compared with our current tax system in order to distinguish if differences it will make in the United States after its implementation. Along with that, the similarities between a flat tax and progressive tax will be noted too. As it is understandable that the ultimately targeted population for the flat tax is the upper class however when it comes to flat tax vs. progressive tax in the United States progressive tax system has been more welcoming than another method. However, as stated by Piketty and Saez (2007), in the United States the federal tax system has undergone three historical extreme changes which have pushed the federal tax system towards a less progressive side. Such in progressive tax system has provided the leverage of lower tax rates which benefits the one percent of Americans but not the majority of the American population. So although it is well circulated that the progressive tax methods have specific tax rates that ensure the higher
Throughout the entire existence of any form of government, there has always been taxes. Most of the time (if not all), people hate taxes. With this being said, the United States has adopted a progressive tax since its very existence. We believe that if our nation is placed under a flat tax system, our economy will operate more effectively. If we incorporate a flat tax system we will be able to ensure fairness among all citizens, eliminate tax loopholes, and allow opportunities for business expansion. With this being said, we will be examining the strengths and weaknesses about the flat tax system and how it has been used into practice.
The pool cost the petitioner over $19,000, and we cannot accept his contention that such amount was spent primarily for therapy for his leg in view of the limited need for such therapy and the alternatives which were then available.
More than 35% of American adults are obese and as a consequence, are at increased risks for health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes ("Overweight & Obesity"). The U.S. taxpayer is supplementing much of the cost to treat obesity related health issues through public health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid ("Economic Costs"). A positive externality will occur in the form of decreased health care expenditures on Medicare and Medicaid. The U.S. government should impose an excise tax on soda and other beverages that contain sugar. Consumers who drink excess sugary beverages impose a negative internality on their health; as well as imposing a negative externality on the American
Parent Corporation owns 85% of the common stock and 100% of the preferred stock of Subsidiary Corporation. The common stock and preferred stock have adjusted bases of $500,000 and $200,000, respectively, to Parent. Subsidiary adopts a plan of liquidation on July 3 of the current year, when its assets have a $1 million FMV. Liabilities on that date amount to $850,000. On November 9, Subsidiary pays off its creditors and distributes $150,000 to Parent with respect to its preferred stock. No cash remain to be aid to Parent with respect to the remaining $50,000 of its liquidation preference for the preferred stock, or with respect to any common stock. In each of Subsidiary’s tax years, less than %10 of its gross
The issues of taxation
The American Revolution happened between 1763-1783 and it happened because the colonists were appalled with Great Britain’s new tax laws. The revolution had begun to raise questions on slavery and equality. The main reason for the revolution seemed unjust and unfair to slaves since it mainly applied to white males and not to them. Then the market revolution in 1800-1840 and the anti-slavery movement in 1830s raised even more doubts for women as well as slaves regarding equality between genders and race. As time went by these ideas became more clear since slavery was vanishing from many other places except from the united states.
The governments in any country use various taxation systems to raise funds to fund its national projects. The most common tax system is the income tax whereby the government raises funds from individual’s earnings. However, in the past few years, there has been heated debate about the adverse effects of progressive income tax on productivity and a proposal to replace it with national sales tax (Hodge, 2017). The national sales tax also known as the fair tax is intended to replace the current income tax and the idea is to enable the government to generate income from consumptions as opposed to earnings. This document examines the positives and negatives of the proposed national sales tax on the U.S. economy. The suggestion to impose a tax on consumption rather than consumption aims at encouraging savings and investments to improve productivity and promote economic growth. It is expected to promote fairness in the taxation because individuals will pay according to what they consume and not what they earn.
A government is responsible in maintaining and improving the country’s structural elements, such as economy, military, agriculture, education and so on. In order to fulfill these responsibilities, the government requires a budget, which it acquires through taxation of the population. In the reading “Why I Like to Pay my Taxes”, Neil Brooks insists that taxes are a good thing, and that they are necessary for society to function, and beneficial in all aspects. He also criticises: people that see tax increase as negative, call taxation a great burden and a restriction of freedom. Neil Brooks shows bias by displaying only the pros of taxation. It is fair to say that arguments with regards to the pros and cons of taxation are a very grey area. The
The congressional proposed tax changes will adversely affect the U.S. middle class. According to Pew Research, which claims to obtain its data through non-partisan demographic research and public opinion polling, the American middle class, defined as those making two-thirds to double the median income, makes up about half the population. Further information in this paper is obtained from reliable sources such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, which are typically regarded as center to left, As well as right-leaning sources such as Forbes magazine, whose chief editor, Steve Forbes, is a major Republican. The Congressional Budget Office and the US Census Bureau also supply reliable, researched data, and both Time Inc, Money, and
This paper examines the generally accepted desirable characteristic of a system of taxation. I describe in this paper that even where every one agrees that the tax system should be simple as dictated by the first maxim of Adam Smith, no country is yet to meet this standard. Questions on policy, complexity, equity, administrative efficiency, cost of compliance all increasing the cry for a tax change. Many Eastern Europeans have adopted the flax tax system and presently has an increase economic growth. However, are they fully operating the flax tax system?
Tax system is a legal system of imposing and collecting taxes from the citizens of the country. As it has been stated by Albert Einstein, the hardest task in the world is to understand the tax system of a country. The United States’ tax system is so complicated that its tax code contains almost 3 million words and 6,000 pages. Moreover, the taxes implied by city and state governments add more complexity to the federal taxation system. In this case, we do not need to understand the complexity of tax code system in order to get acquainted with the significant role of taxes in American society.
There are two things in life that are certain: death and taxes. In today's world, the majority of our government's income comes from taxation. A tax is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution imposed by government (Mikesell, 2011). Taxes are an amount of money collected from citizens, and they are used to provide public goods and services to benefit our communities. Taxes are amounts established in a political process of structured laws to determine how the collective cost of government services will be distributed among elements of the market economy. The two most important tax policies are the level of taxation, or how much taxes should be, and the structure of the system, or how revenue is to be raised
Taxation systems are usually modeled in such a way that they take into consideration the social welfare of the citizens. The government and other policy makers have the responsibility of ensuring that the system takes into account the needs of the citizens. The bottom line is that taxation should foster equal distribution of resources. The rate of taxation is usually arrived at after several considerations have been made. The rates are not fixed as they depend on the various economic changes. The issue of how taxation should be distributed among the different economic classes is yet to be addressed.
I’ve summed up the introduction of Taxation to these slight words. Taxation is defined as a way that the government able to generate or collect revenue from the citizen of one’s nation through different sources. As what I’ve learned from Taxation course that there are two types of taxation, direct which are paid by the taxpayer directly to the government, and indirect which are collected by an intermediary (like a retail store) from the consumer. The intermediary who will file the tax return later and forward the amount of the money to the government with the return. This tax is applicable to organizations and individuals. In this reflection, I would like to highlight what I learned of business and individual taxation, the experience on working with a group for the project and what challenges I faced and how I was able to get past.